AP Interview: Alleged killer to testify in court vs. Duterte

An emotional retired police officer Arturo Lascanas poses for a photograph during an interview with the Associated Press at an undisclosed location Thursday, March 9, 2017, in Manila, Philippines. Lascanas testified Monday before a Philippine Senate probe linking President Rodrigo Duterte, mayor at the time, and other hitmen to nearly 200 killings including foreign drug suspects, that the officer and other members of a so-called death squad allegedly carried out. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
(The Associated Press)

Retired police officer Arturo Lascanas describes how he and his group would torture their victims before killing them during an interview with the Associated Press at an undisclosed location Thursday, March 9, 2017, in Manila, Philippines. Lascanas testified Monday before a Philippine Senate probe linking President Rodrigo Duterte, mayor at the time, and other hitmen to nearly 200 killings including foreign drug suspects, that the officer and other members of a so-called death squad allegedly carried out. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
(The Associated Press)

Retired police officer Arturo Lascanas gestures during an interview with the Associated Press at an undisclosed location Thursday, March 9, 2017, in Manila, Philippines. Lascanas testified Monday before a Philippine Senate probe linking President Rodrigo Duterte, mayor at the time, and other hitmen to nearly 200 killings including foreign drug suspects, that the officer and other members of a so-called death squad allegedly carried out. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
(The Associated Press)

MANILA, Philippines – A retired police officer who linked the Philippine president, when he was mayor of a southern city, to hundreds of extrajudicial killings in a local anti-drug crackdown says he's ready to testify in court and help authorities gather evidence of the slayings he says he and other paid assassins carried out.

Arturo Lascanas told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday the deadly campaign he and others allegedly carried out on orders of then Davao city Mayor Rodrigo Duterte was "95 percent" similar to the bloody anti-drug crackdown now unfolding across the Philippines under Duterte, currently the president.

Lascanas linked Duterte to the Davao killings in testimony at a Senate inquiry this week. Duterte has not replied in detail but has denied condoning unlawful killings.